a look at writing, marketing & the mindset to improve your skills in both.

In a post not so long ago, I shared the story of how I was given the role of Prince Charming in our class production of ‘Cinderella’ when I was in Year 1. What I didn’t mention was something that happened before we went on stage the day of the big performance, which in itself contained a life lesson that feels more relevant the older I get. To set the scene: I’m running around outside the school hall with some classmates playing tip, when somebody tags me with a grubby hand. On the breast of my pure white ruffled shirt is now a brown, dirty smudge. After the great care Mum had taken into measuring me up and sewing this costume and all the time spent doing rehearsals, surely my teacher would take one look at me and I wouldn’t be allowed to perform? I think I’ve just ruined the whole show! Then who should arrive on the scene at this moment but Mrs West- none other than the School Principal herself! She quickly learned why I was upset, heard my protestations about not being able to perform and then shared 5 words of wisdom that have stuck with me ever since that day in August 1992:

“The show must go on.”

Dressed up like a Prince but got dirt on my lapels? The show must go on… Losing sleep at night in the middle of a busy week? The show must go on… You dream of owning 10 companies and spending 6 months a year on holiday, but right now you’re freezing in your squalid flat in the middle of winter, barely able to afford 2-minute noodles? The show must go on… Feeling outcast and alone, wondering when you’ll find that place where you belong- or if it even exists? The show must go on… Although I plot for success (across a number of areas in my professional and personal life) every new week that dawns, seldom does everything go to plan. I’d struggle to count on a single hand the amount of times where the most important tasks all get crossed off by weeks’ end. By contrast, countless times I’ve had my patience tested or there’s been an unplanned detour in that straight road to success I envisaged. Nobody can feel 100% positive or motivated every waking moment, because life happens. To quote Dr Seuss “I’m sad to say it’s true, that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you”. Moods can change like the skies above. When you zoom out and look at it on a 365 day scope, the biggest hassle or frustration of your week usually turns into an ant hill by comparison. What you should pay attention to is just one factor: The most important aspects of your life that you have made notable progress in. Perhaps right now you don’t feel as if the reflection in the mirror is 100% who they could be. Maybe you don’t feel as if you’re in your 100% best mood or 100% productive, motivated or efficient. Do you want that to change any time soon? Do you want to see notable improvement and achievement when you zoom your life timeline back to the context of 52 weeks in a given year? Then keep on moving, irrespective. Even if you can only manage 80%, it’s still 80% better than moping about, procrastinating and making excuses for why you’re stranded and underwhelmed. Even if you’re not at your best, you can still move forward and keep getting stuff done. From personal experience, I find there’s a unique, almost humorous feeling of satisfaction I get if I reach the end of a week that’s been mentally/ emotionally testing yet I still got a whole heap of important, life-building, career-strengthening stuff done. I feel like the hero at the end of an action movie. My clothes are torn and soaked in blood, I’m exhausted and wounded, there are buildings on fire all around me, smoke billowing into the sky and the wailing sirens of the emergency services coming to clean everything up are robbing me of peace and quiet. But in spite of all that? I got stuff done, regardless. Instead of giving up and lamenting that “shit happens”, I turned around and made shit happen. So pick yourself up and brush the dirt from your lapel. After all, the show must go on…